Airlines in the US have been ordered to ignore “X” gender markers on passports.
The new US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) policy has been issued to comply with president Donald Trump’s “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” executive order, which directed airlines to disregard the “X” marker and ask for either “M” or “F” instead.
The “X” non-binary marker was introduced in 2022, during Joe Biden’s presidency, but has since been suspended for anyone applying for a new passport.
Speaking about the change, the White House told NOTUS that the executive order would not invalidate previously issued passports. Although, if government-issued IDs need to be renewed, they must reflect the holder’s biological sex at birth.
“They can still apply to renew their passport — they just have to use their God-given sex, which was decided at birth,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement at the time. “Thanks to President Trump, it is now the official policy of the federal government that there are only two sexes — male and female.”
Andy Izenson, a senior legal director at the Chosen Family Law Center, told The Guardian that passports with “X” markers should still be valid but the policy change could cause confusion at check-in desks and border control, although only international travellers were likely to be affected.
“They are trying to throw us into a state of reactivity”
“They are trying to throw us into a state of reactivity so that we’re not able to focus on practical advocacy and the material needs of our communities,” Izenson said. “The more they can keep us confused and freaked out and not sure what’s going on, the more they can do whatever they want.”
A CBS spokesperson told the newspaper: “Foreign travellers with authorised and valid US travel documents are being processed as they were previously. New or renewing trusted traveller programme applicants are now required to choose one of the two approved designations, male or female. An applicant’s choice of sex is not criteria for an applicant’s admission into the US.”
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